As scholars debate whether World War I was an accidental war rife with mistakes and misperceptions or an intentional plan to dominate the world, a new documentary featuring the work of California State University historian Richard Weikart examines the support Germany drew from a virulent form of militarism that its adherents based on biological science.

What caused the terrible world war that began 100 years ago this month? The answer is complicated. Economic trends and social oozes certainly had a big role. Man-centered pride rather than God-centered humility ran rampant among both leaders and followers, with some church hierarchs looking to “progress” rather than Christ for salvation. But many of us were struck in the late 1990s by the irresponsibility of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich in putting their personal urges ahead of the national interest, and a parallel problem emerged a century ago.

On the occasion of this week’s 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency, The Washington Post sponsored a reunion featuring Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporters who “brought down” the 37th president.

In fact, Nixon committed political suicide. He thought he could get away with what other politicians had done, but forgot the rules are different for Republicans.

NEWBURY, England—World War I began as most wars do with patriotic fervor and predictions of a quick end. It lasted four years.

In January 1942, a squad of Axis soldiers in the Balkans lined up hundreds of Serbians and Jews along the Danube River, stripped them naked in the winter cold, and massacred them with rifles and bayonets. A Nazi dentist named Elimar Luder Precht selected Auschwitz inmates with gold or platinum teeth for execution. Helmut Steinmetz killed a crippled Jewish man in the street in Warsaw, Poland.

Seventy years ago—July 23, 1944—signs suddenly appeared at prisoner of war camps in Germany: “ESCAPE FROM PRISON CAMPS IS NO LONGER A SPORT.”

Those signs meant the Gestapo had murdered 50 escapees from Stalag Luft III. A terrific film you might watch this summer, The Great Escape (1963), commemorates that heroic-turned-tragic adventure. Let’s review the reality, the movie, and the metaphor.

Francis Scott Key, sitting in a boat more than a mile from the Baltimore shore, peered through the first light of dawn toward Fort McHenry on Sept. 14, 1814. Key didn’t support the War of 1812 initially. Americans began it to challenge the British for disrespecting American sailors and infringing on their right to trade with other countries. But he negotiated with the British for the release of a captured family friend. The British wanted to finish shelling the fort with their glaring red rockets, so they made him remain in the bay overnight.